Improvement in toy money-boxes



G. 6.10HNSON.

Toy Money-Boxes.

Patented Oct 28,1873.

Ina/81417014 Zia/U44;

UNIT-En S'rnrns IMPROVEMENT IN TOY MONEY-BOXES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 144,106, dated October28, 1873; application filed July 10, 1873.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES G. JOHNSON, of Somerville, in the county ofMiddlesex and State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improved ToySavings-Bank; and I do hereby declare that the following, taken inconnection with the drawings which accompany and form part of thisspecification, is a description of my invention suiiicient to enablethose skilled in the art to practice it.

The invention relates to the construction of a toy sayings-bank. In myinvention I use a toy building made up of cast-metal plates, torepresent the four outer walls and the floor and roof of a building, andwithin the building, dividing the front part thereof from the rear part,I place a cast-metal partition. In the front wall is a door, and betweenthe door and the partition stands an image representin g amoney-receiver. This image is iixed to a pivot connected with a coiledspring, the stress of which tends to hold the clerk or money-receiver uptoward the partition, with his back to the door, and, by a connectionbetween the image and the door, the stress of the spring also tending tohold the door closed. Through the partition is a horizontal slot, andextending from the image is a plate that projects through this slot whenthe door is closed. When the dooris opened (against the stress of thespring) the wire connection between the door and the image causes theimage to turn on its pivotal center or bearing,

and to face or stand in the open doorway with his plate extended toreceive money. The wire connection operates as a spring, when the dooris wide open, to keep the door open and the image to the front; but,when the door is started from this position, the stress of thecoil-spring tends to shut the door, and with some force. As the doorthus shuts, the image, with the money upon the plate, turns andapproaches the partition, and the plate enters the partition-slot, and,by its movement, throws a the money from the plate inside of thepartition. It is in this construction, and details pertaining thereto,that my invention consists.

The drawing represents a toy bank embodying the construction.

Figure 1 shows the bank in front elevation, the door being closed. Fig.2 is a similar ele vation with the door open. Fig. 3 is a sectionalplanon the line as r. Fig. 4 is a bottom view of the bank.

a 1) denote the side plates; 0, the rear plate, and d the door hinged inthe front plate. 0

denotes the floor, and f the roof. All of these plates are cast in anyshape to represent a building, and are formed and joined at therespective edges in any suitable manner, so that, by rods 9, the wholestructure will be held to gether. These rods are preferably formed withheads or caps h, and, extending down through the building, pass throughholes i in the floor.

Below the floor, the rods are hooked, as seen at j, and the hooks extendover circular inclines k, which are formed with notches, so that bysimply turning the hooks in one direction the rods maybe tightened moreor less, as may be required, to firmly secure the parts together,reverse movement of the hooks loos ening the rods, so that the platesmay separate. These rods constitute the only fastenings. WVithin thebuilding is a partition, I, which separates the building into twocompartments, m n. The rear compartment constitutes the deposit-room orvault, and the front compartment the receiving-room and in the latterroom is the image 0, that represents the receiver. This image standsupon one end of a plate, 12, from whose opposite end extends down a pin,9, through the floor. To the pin beneath the floor is fixed one end of acoiled spring, 1*, contained in a case formed by the floor and a plate,8, andthe rim or flange t. The stress of this spring tends to keep theplate 1) turned in, and holds the image up toward the partition; and thefront of the image has projecting from it the plate a, which, when theimage is turned toward the partition, ex-

tends through a slot, 11, in the partition Z. The end of the plate 19opposite to the partition I is connected, by a wire link, w, with thedoor (I, and the wire is so bent that when the door is wide open thewire acts as a spring to hold it open. When the door stands open thereceiver 0 stands with the plate a ready to receive money; and when acoin is deposited upon the plate, and the door is turned forward inclosing it, the stress of the spring will tend to close the door. Ifallowed to close by the force of the spring, the plate a will carry themoney through the slot 12, and the momentum will project the money fromthe plate, from which it will fall into the vault or money-room. Thecoin is prevented from moving back on the plate by a flange, m.

It will be observed that the slot v is at a considerable height from thefloor, and, hence, that there is abundant room for receiving a largeamount of pennies and other small coins before the slot can becomeobstructed by the accumulating pile. It will also be observed that theopening of the door does not open the money-room, but that the latter isentirely separate from the room into which the door opens, and is notaccessible through said room, the only communication being through theslot c, which only admits money on the plate.

When the money is to be withdrawn, access is to be obtained to thebank-vault through a removable trap-door, y, in the floor.

I claim- 1. The toy bank having the partition I, with its money-slot v,and the image 0 and its plate operated by the spring 1", to carry themoney through the slot 1), and to close the door, when the said partsare combined and arranged substantially as shown and described.

Witnesses FRANCIS GOULD, M. \V. FROTHINGI-IAM.

